The New York Stock Exchange, which wants to play a leading role in the consolidation of European stock markets, last night cleared the final hurdle to becoming a listed company.

John Thain, NYSE chief executive, said: "This will mark the beginning of a new era for the exchange and America's financial markets."

He added that as a public company, the NYSE could provide customers with more choice in trading an advanced technology platform and more products.

Thain said at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month that the NYSE "wants to play a leadership role in the consolidation process" of stock exchanges and that European targets were high on his agenda. He declined to say which exchanges he had targeted.

Last week Macquarie, the Australian investment group, withdrew its £1.5bn (€2.2bn) hostile bid for the LSE as Reto Francioni, Deutsche Börse chief executive, called for fresh merger talks with rival Euronext.

Deutsche Börse has already tried once to bid for the LSE. Euronext has indicated its interest. The have also talked of a merging.

The NYSE agreed the reverse takeover of Archipelago in April last year. Goldman Sachs advised both sides on the deal.

Separately the LSE has confirmed a joint marketing agreement with Micex, the Russian exchange, which was exclusively revealed by Financial News last month.

Clara Furse, chief executive of the LSE, said: "We are delighted to announce this agreement with Micex. We look forward to contributing to the development of Russia's capital markets by working with Micex to raise awareness of the IPO opportunities for Russian issuers and investors."